3.2.4. Evolution of income for Special Taxes

Revenue for Special Taxes increased in 2016 by 3.8%. Most of this growth is due to the drop in refunds on the so-called healthcare cent tax ("céntimo sanitario"), which fell by 70% in 2016.

The most significant item, the Hydrocarbons Tax, went up by 2.7% (excluding the healthcare cent). This is lower than the figure for 2015, although the main products connected to activity and consumption (petrol and diesel) performed similarly to last year. On the other hand, other products related to the production of other energies (natural gas) and heating (diesel oil for heating), dropped in 2016. In other captions, the Tax on Tobacco Products closed the year with a slight increase due to stockpile purchases by distributors in advance of the price hike that entered into effect in early December. Without the effect of this, revenue on this caption would be practically the same as for 2015. With regard to the Tax on Electricity, the year ended with a significant drop of 6.8% due to a sharp fall in prices throughout most of the year. Taxes on Alcohol and Alcohol, Alcoholic Beverages and Beer increased slightly (by 1.5% overall). Lastly, tax revenues on the Carbon Tax dropped by 25.8%. The product taxed here is the coal used for electricity generation and the revenues depend, therefore, on the decisions taken in this field. As with natural gas, in 2016 use of these products was much less intense than in 2015, leading to the drop in related tax revenues.